Can my Bitcoin be stolen

[Yeezus]

Having my coins stolen is one of my biggest fears. Seems people lose them to thieves everyday.

[byt411]

Generate a paper wallet from a offline linux computer that has never and will never touch the internet. and never use an offchain/third-party wallet, always have full access to your coins.
-ranochigo

I do this. 

I boot up Ubuntu via a USB key using "try it now" instead of a full installation.

I have a local copy of bitaddress.org saved. 

Then I generate some addresses and save to a USB key.  Copy public addresses then stash away the USB key.

This way, the private addresses never gets online.

Someone brought up BIOS-based viruses, though. Would it be possible for someone to have the key snagged and stored in the BIOS somehow, then when you load up the computer normally and go online, it would send in the information? I've been pretty amazed at the tricks people have come up with in the past...

I did. The BIOS has no memory, but however, it does not need to have so. It can just transmit the data from the USB stick to the hard drive, and then upload it to the hacker whenever the PC is online.

Is this a legitimate fear, though, or just something that may or may not actually be possible? I'm not familiar enough with the BIOS to know how this all works.

And you can short it out to reset it prior to running any wallet generator on the system, right?

To be on the safe side, you can download the stock BIOS and flash it before turning it into a cold wallet.
As far as I know, the malware can be flashed into the BIOS, and it will execute commands made by a hacker. It probably will keylog everything and save that into your hard drive, and it will upload it once it has an internet connection, so the OS doesn't make a difference.
It's a fear, but it's highly unlikely to happen, to be honest. I'm just suggesting 100% protection here.

[AceWallen]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

[byt411]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

Meh. Have antimalware and antivirus, and be careful when downloading random stuff.

[ranlo]

Generate a paper wallet from a offline linux computer that has never and will never touch the internet. and never use an offchain/third-party wallet, always have full access to your coins.
-ranochigo

I do this.  

I boot up Ubuntu via a USB key using "try it now" instead of a full installation.

I have a local copy of bitaddress.org saved.  

Then I generate some addresses and save to a USB key.  Copy public addresses then stash away the USB key.

This way, the private addresses never gets online.

Someone brought up BIOS-based viruses, though. Would it be possible for someone to have the key snagged and stored in the BIOS somehow, then when you load up the computer normally and go online, it would send in the information? I've been pretty amazed at the tricks people have come up with in the past...

I did. The BIOS has no memory, but however, it does not need to have so. It can just transmit the data from the USB stick to the hard drive, and then upload it to the hacker whenever the PC is online.

Is this a legitimate fear, though, or just something that may or may not actually be possible? I'm not familiar enough with the BIOS to know how this all works.

And you can short it out to reset it prior to running any wallet generator on the system, right?

To be on the safe side, you can download the stock BIOS and flash it before turning it into a cold wallet.
As far as I know, the malware can be flashed into the BIOS, and it will execute commands made by a hacker. It probably will keylog everything and save that into your hard drive, and it will upload it once it has an internet connection, so the OS doesn't make a difference.
It's a fear, but it's highly unlikely to happen, to be honest. I'm just suggesting 100% protection here.

I figure if it's possible, and it would lead to stealthily being able to steal wallets, mass adoption would increase the chances of people doing it. The rewards are just too great not to.

[tatu]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

Thats why I dont download any alt coin wallets. ?

[ampere9765]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

Thats why I dont download any alt coin wallets. ?

Same here. It actually sort of sucks, I need to get a spare crap computer that I can mess around with for things like that. For example, CPU mining MRO could be really profitable when it came out, but I was too scared of downloading anything. So I missed out. Did buy some and made a bit of BTC profit out of it, though.

[hulk]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

Thats why I dont download any alt coin wallets. ?

I believe free anti virus would take care of that problem, so you won't miss the Alt coin mining

[ranlo]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

Thats why I dont download any alt coin wallets. ?

I believe free anti virus would take care of that problem, so you won't miss the Alt coin mining

AV's only catch certain things. When someone comes up with a new virus, it can go undetected for weeks or months. Relying on this as the sole way to protect yourself is going to result in disaster.

[jonald_fyookball]

Having my coins stolen is one of my biggest fears. Seems people lose them to thieves everyday.

I have no fear because my coins are in cold storage! 

[ranochigo]

i had the bitcoins in my QT wallet stolen. here is how it happened: it was during the November bubble and some guy posted an altcoin miner (i think YAC) but it was really a virus and it drained my BTC wallet. that was a huge bummer!

Thats why I dont download any alt coin wallets. ?

I believe free anti virus would take care of that problem, so you won't miss the Alt coin mining

Anti virus cannot cover all of the viruses, some are FUD so they cannot be detected. Free anti virus means that it will cover even less, not such a good idea.
-ramochigo

[siameze]

I just installed a bitcoin client on my PC , a was thinking before i download my wallet from blockchain.info, If someone has access to my PC or if i am infected by a virus will this compromise allow my bitcoin to be stolen?

Yes, the file containing you wallet can be stolen that way, but put a very hard to break password on it and you'll be fine for a while. The time and effort wouldnt be worth the thief's time for stealing whats in your account.

Cold storage ... TradeFortress should definitely have a good education on that by now.

[ranlo]

I just installed a bitcoin client on my PC , a was thinking before i download my wallet from blockchain.info, If someone has access to my PC or if i am infected by a virus will this compromise allow my bitcoin to be stolen?

Yes, the file containing you wallet can be stolen that way, but put a very hard to break password on it and you'll be fine for a while. The time and effort wouldnt be worth the thief's time for stealing whats in your account.

Cold storage ... TradeFortress should definitely have a good education on that by now.

TF has always been 100% behind cold storage. He always put down web wallets because then you don't control your keys. Even when he ran Inputs.io he was against web wallets, :p.

[AltCoinArt]

What is the best flavor of linux to use?

[siameze]

I just installed a bitcoin client on my PC , a was thinking before i download my wallet from blockchain.info, If someone has access to my PC or if i am infected by a virus will this compromise allow my bitcoin to be stolen?

Yes, the file containing you wallet can be stolen that way, but put a very hard to break password on it and you'll be fine for a while. The time and effort wouldnt be worth the thief's time for stealing whats in your account.

Cold storage ... TradeFortress should definitely have a good education on that by now.

TF has always been 100% behind cold storage. He always put down web wallets because then you don't control your keys. Even when he ran Inputs.io he was against web wallets, :p.

Then saying you are sorry and giving out free hugs fixes everything. Got it.

[ranlo]

I just installed a bitcoin client on my PC , a was thinking before i download my wallet from blockchain.info, If someone has access to my PC or if i am infected by a virus will this compromise allow my bitcoin to be stolen?

Yes, the file containing you wallet can be stolen that way, but put a very hard to break password on it and you'll be fine for a while. The time and effort wouldnt be worth the thief's time for stealing whats in your account.

Cold storage ... TradeFortress should definitely have a good education on that by now.

TF has always been 100% behind cold storage. He always put down web wallets because then you don't control your keys. Even when he ran Inputs.io he was against web wallets, :p.

Then saying you are sorry and giving out free hugs fixes everything. Got it.

You realize this isn't the real TF, right? This has been established time after time by those who have dealt with him extensively.

[marky89]

yes i had my bitcoins stolen once from my QT wallet. i believe it was from an altcoin wallet that was actually malware.

[DolanDuck]

1 Set up a Wuala account, or other cloud backup service of your choice.

2 Create a strong and unique password offline (manually). This password should be at least 20 characters long; it should contain numbers, upper and lower case letters, and symbols. It should be as random as possible, ie it should look something like this: Zr%8qL03&cvwS9@05AatdP71. Never use this password elsewhere.

3 Do not forget this password. Recite it several times a day. It is easy to overestimate your ability to remember a password several months in the future. To be on the safe side, write it down and store the piece of paper in a safety deposit box.

4 Download Bitcoin Linux binary and save it on a USB drive.

5 Shut down your computer, and boot Ubuntu (or Linux distribution of you choice) from a liveCD. This will not affect your current operating system.

6 Disconnect machine from the internet. Unplug any network cables and disable wireless. Verify that wireless is disabled in the icon on the upper right corner (Ubuntu). Double check that machine is disconnected by opening the web browser.

7 Run bitcoin while disconnected to the internet. The client will show 0 connections and 0 blocks, but it will still generate a wallet.dat file and a bitcoin address.

8 Encrypt your wallet using the strong and unique password from step 2 above. (Bitcoin Client > Settings > Encrypt wallet)

9 Copy wallet.dat (found in hidden folder .bitcoin in your home directory) to USB drive.

10 Save bitcoin address to a text file and copy it to USB drive.

11 Shut down system and turn off computer. Before switching your computer on again, remove all power sources for about 1 minute. Physically remove battery from laptop.

12 Backup encrypted wallet.dat file in several places:
Send it to your 5 best friends by email attachment and ask them to save it for you.
Save it on your Wuala account created in step 1.
Save it on several USB drives and CDs and store them in different geographic locations.

13 Send bitcoins to the address saved on the USB drive. Double check in the block explorer that they have been sent.

[eagles343]

yes it surely can. i wasnt careful and was downloading all sorts of malicious stuff and something drained my desktop wallet about a year ago 

[ranlo]

yes it surely can. i wasnt careful and was downloading all sorts of malicious stuff and something drained my desktop wallet about a year ago  ?

I would be especially careful with the free IPO coins because those are pretty risky and they're usually launched by new users. Always verify the source.